The Story of Inceten Almond Orchard
In 2005, we bought our orchard in the Karakavak Village, Tekirdağ and we founded our farm in 2006.
We decided on the product which was going to be planted in our orchard with the authorities in Atatürk Horticultural Central Research Institute, Yalova. After considering especially grapes, walnuts and almonds; we decided almonds are the best fit for us. While making this decision, the soil analysis tests and the feasibility studies also guided us.
In Fall 2006, we started marking our fields and completed the piling. After, in order to start plantation we cracked almond shells in the lower end of every single pole. In January 2007, while all of our orchard was under snow, we started planting every single cracked bitter almond on our field. After all the preparations were done in January 2007, a nervous waiting started until the Spring.
In March 2007, while we were welcoming our first Spring in our orchard, the almonds were sprouted but we were having a hard time finding the almond buds in the herbs. Five years after Spring 2007, the two merits that enlightened our way in this journey were patience and belief. While on the one hand we kept watering, vaccinating, pruning and manuring, on the other hand we kept being still patient and faithful. As the best response to our labor, the plants were growing day by day. And as we saw the progress on our plants, our hopes were growing with them.
After 2007, we planted Ferragnes and Ferraduel almond sprouts, that blossoms late, instead of the present infertile almond sprouts. In addition, we planted Non Pareil and Texas almonds in 5x5m interspaces on our orchard. In order to help the blossoms for all, we are housing more than 100 hives of honey bees in our fields since then.
At the end of the fifth year, the unshelled almonds that we planted on our orchard with big hopes, became young plants and green almonds appeared on their branches. Almost 10.000 young plants were trying to reach us with their branches full of green almonds. Thus, we were trying to strengthen their roots by picking the green almonds from the branches gently by hand and renouncing the year's harvest.
The villagers of Karakavak were sharing our dreams by watching the growth of green almonds on our trees' branches and realizing how these arid lands became a huge organic almond factory.
The sprouts of our almond flowers were making the beekeepers from the neighbour villages envious. Tens of thousands of almond trees on our orchard enable the production of organic honey by beekeepers in our fields.
The organic story of our farm is the most important source of our pride. We applied for the organic certification in 2010, for our orchard in which we never used chemical pesticides since day zero in 2006. Independent organic certifying agent comes for inspection to the orchard, every year for the upcoming four year period after the application is taken into consideration. In 2015, our orchard was qualified for the organic certification. For the continuity of our organic certification our orchard is still being inspected every single year. Hence, our orchard is being a model for all the organic farmers, helping to fight against the current account deficit of our country through reducing almond importation and having a positive impact on all of our consumers’ health.
We started our journey with the dream of growing organic almonds. However, now we have a bigger goal of growing the most delicious almonds of the World. In this journey, we were always aware of and we will never forget the contribution of villagers of Karakavak and Çerkezmüsellim who spent great effort on our fields and all the conscious consumers who keep supporting us.
Inceten Almond Orchard